Psychology

Learn about how stress affects the brain and the resilience scale in this scientifically based video (7:42) created by the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative in consultation with the FrameWorks Institute and the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.

Just what is the difference between sensing and perceiving? And how does vision actually work? In this episode, Hank takes us on a journey through the brain to better explain these and other concepts.

In this episode, Hank takes us to the simplest part of the complex system of our brains and nervous systems: the neuron.

Why do we sleep? Well... that's a tricky question. More easily answered is the question, "How do we sleep?" In this episode, Hank discusses some of the ways our brain functions when sleeping and how it can malfunction as well.

This four minute animated video presents the core story of brain development. Learn how childhood experiences can affect our brains and how we sometimes need our brains to function like 'air traffic control'.

This site contains articles reflecting current research on issues related to psychology. These articles either link to original research or references.

Have you ever wondered why teenagers truly seem like another species? Turns out their brains are actually functioning in a completely different way during this stage of development!

You might think of meditation as just a New Age trend, but it may actually benefit your brain!

The human brain is complex and awe-inspiring, so of course we have been trying to figure out how to control it. From electricity to light, here are some of the ways we have attempted to command our wrinkly thinkers.

Synesthesia allows people to hear color or taste numbers—and maybe even remember some things better than the average person.

Are the five senses really all that we use to take in the world around us, or is it a little more complex than that?

Dreams can be scary, mystifying, and sometimes unnatural feeling experiences, but there's plenty about them that are perfectly ordinary. Here's a compilation of some things we know about dreams.

Dig into what happens to your brain during adolescence that changes how you value, understand, and connect to friends.

How does your brain produce an image of something you’ve never seen? Andrey Vyshedskiy details the neuroscience of imagination.

The human brain is visibly split into a left and right side. This structure has inspired one of the most pervasive ideas about the brain: that the left side controls logic and the right side controls creativity. And yet, this is a myth, unsupported by scientific evidence. So how did this idea come about, and what does it get wrong?

Often people make decisions that are not “rational” from a purely economical point of view — meaning that they don’t necessarily lead to the best result. Why is that? Are we just bad at dealing with numbers and odds? Or is there a psychological mechanism behind it?

Remember that guy from 300? What was his name? ARG!!! It turns out our brains make and recall memories in different ways. Let's talk about the way we do it, what damaging that process can do to us, and that guy... with the face and six-pack...

Hank talks about how we remember and forget things, why our memories are fallible, and the dangers that can pose.

The Queensland Brain Institute has a collection of short articles about memory, the types of memory, how memories form, how they are stored, and how they are affected by age.

The simple eye movements involved in EMDR therapy are supposed to help you reprocess traumatic memories, but does it actually work?

Have you ever forgotten why you walked into a room? Turns out it's just your brain doing its job.

Don't you think it would be nice if you had a photographic memory? But is it actually a thing?

A memory isn’t stored in your brain in a neat little package, but is instead spread across a pattern of cells in different regions. What's more, understanding this process could open the door to better treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s or PTSD.

Do you often lose things like your keys? Psychology can explain not only why it happens, but also some ways to combat that.

Having a perfect memory sounds like the most amazing thing ever, but there's also a downside of having hyperthymesia.

If you're a Pokémon fan watching a Pokemon move, a bit of your brain might light up that won’t in people who haven't played. Find out why that's important to understanding how our brains work, and the latest breakthrough in Alzheimer's research.

You spend weeks studying for an important test. On the big day, you wait nervously as your teacher hands it out. You’re working your way through, when you’re asked to define "ataraxia." You know you’ve seen the word before, but your mind goes blank. What just happened?

Dig into the psychology of how memories are susceptible to false information and why we shouldn’t treat them as truth.

Think back to a really vivid memory. Got it? Now try to remember what you had for lunch three weeks ago. That second memory probably isn’t as strong—but why not? Why do we remember some things, and not others? And why do memories eventually fade? Catharine Young gives the basics on memory and memory loss.

What exactly is hypnosis? Some people think it's just a fun trick for magic shows, but can it actually make you do things against your will?

Explore the Rashomon effect, where individuals give significantly different but equally believable accounts of the same event.

Travel into the brain to see how its network of neurons transmit your thoughts and what factors determine how quickly you think.

The traditional model of our mental function is that first our senses provide data to our brain, which then translates those senses into the appropriate mental phenomena: light into visual images, air vibrations into auditory experiences, etc. But what if that process is actually occurring simultaneously?

Discover where our perception of what is normal comes from, and how it impacts the decisions we make.

Would you open an umbrella indoors? How do you feel about the number 13? Whether or not you believe in them, you’re probably familiar with a few of these superstitions. But where did they come from? Stuart Vyse shares the weird and specific origins of superstitions.

In the 3rd millennium BCE, Mesopotamian kings recorded and interpreted their dreams on wax tablets. In the years since, we haven't paused in our quest to understand why we dream. And while we still don’t have any definitive answers, we have some theories.

Nostalgia was once considered an illness confined to specific groups of people. Today, people all over the world report experiencing and enjoying nostalgia. But how does nostalgia work? And is it healthy?